We go out inside

The first thing you need to know about Hany Armanious’s We go out inside is that all you see before you is not quite what you get. Displayed at Roslyn Oxley9 on a number of plinths are various ordinary ‘readymade’ objects, many of them transparent – a lamp, plastic items, drinking glasses, lunch boxes, light bulbs – composed in all manner of arrangements that, at least at first, don’t make a whole lot of sense. Just like magic every object in the show is an almost perfect facsimile of the real thing including any faults. The more flawlessly cast an imperfection, the more accomplished it becomes.

Although they would normally be passed over as an adjunct to the ‘art’ Armanious’s plinths are crucial in this show. The plinth plays the dual role of elevating the artist’s choice of quotidian objects into art and simultaneously joining them in this new realm. The majority are cast from polyurethane resin (from the original in transparent plastic and paper) with a couple more constructed as bare frames. In the latter case, the readymade arrangement sits on the base and just above the floor.

Like Marcel Duchamp, who famously removed the distinction between goods of mass production and art, Armanious says he’s indifferent to good or bad taste in his selection of objects or their arrangement. Rather than appearance or aesthetic, the weight-bearing capacity of the support informs his choice. While Duchamp’s legacy means that anything can become art, Armanious says he’s attempting to transform “reality into a toy”.

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